Machine for making laundry bags



Jan. 23, 1934. M. H. SIDEBOTHAM MACHINE FOR MAKING LAUNDRY BAGS F l BPt- 1931 7 Sheets-Sheet 2 J'Mebothwm dti'orn 6H men/1:11 H.

Jan. 23, 1934.

M. SIDEBOTHAM MACHINE FOR MAKING LAUNDRY BAGS Filed Sept. 5, 193} 7 Sheets-Sheet 3 Illlllllll MI I71 van-tor 7776501177 1[. 51I0 e60Z71wm ai'i'o r1163 M. H. SIDEBOTHAM MACHINE FOR MAKING LAUNDRY BAGS Filed Sept. 5, 1931 7 Sheets-Sheet 4 Jan. 23, 1934.

1934. M. H. SIDEBOTI -IAM MACHINE FOR MAKING LAUNDRY BAGS Filed Sept. 5, 19:51 7 Shefs-Sheet 5 I11 ve Ti tor 77763111327 H. fillieboifiam 7 Sheets-Sheet 6 Bavaria-to? 7776612577 H. Jiae bothwm athrzzgg M. H. SIDEBOTHAM MACHINE FOR MAKING LAUNDRY BAGS Filed Sept. 5, 1931 Jan. 23, 1934.

Jan. 23, 1934. M. H. SIDEBOTHAM MACHINE FOR MAKING LAUNDRY BAGS Filed Sept. 5, 1931 '7 Sheets-Sheet j7v877l02' 7776501571 H. Sideboihwm aihi'zzgg Patented Jan. 23, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE MACHINE FOR MAKING LAUNDRY BAGS chusetts Application September 5, 1931. Serial No. 561,360

14 Claims. (Cl. 93-76) This invention relates to the production of paper containers, and has particular reference to the manufacture of flat paper bags suitable for the deposit of soiled clothing therein and for the transportation of the whole to a laundry. As is well known, such bags areused largely by hotels and furnished to guests for the latter to deposit therein articles which are to be sent to a laundry. On such bags it is customary to apply printed matter including the name of the hotel and indications where the names or room numbers of the guests are to be filled in.

As such bags are not articles for' which the hotels can make charge items to their guests; in other words, since the bags are practically given free to the guests, it is important that they shall be of low cost to the hotels and yet possess a high degree of utility to the guests.

One of the objects of the present invention is 20 to produce paper bags suitable for containing clothing to be laundered or other articles, at such speed as to minimize the cost of manufacture.

Another object is to produce such bags with automatically and securely attached pieces of string which, after articles are placed in the bags, can be used to tie around the open ends of the bags to close them.

' Another object is to provide such bags with reinforced holes to enable them to be hung on hooks.

With said objects is view, the invention consists in the construction and combinations of parts substantially as hereinafter described and claimed.

Of the accompanying drawings:-

Figure l is a side elevation of that part of the machine which includes the present improvements.

Figure 2 is an elevation looking from the left of Figure 1.

Figure 3 represents a section on line 3-3 of Figure 2.

Figure 4 represents a detail section on line 44 of Figure 2.

Figure 5 represents a detail section on line 55 of Figure 2.

Figure 6 represents a section on line 6-6 of Figure 2.

Figures 7 and 8 are detail perspective views of the associated members which coact with the drum in effecting folding and the application of a string and a tab to each bag.

Figure 9 represents a detail section on line 9-9 of Figure 1.

Figure 10 is a plan view of some of the parts shown in Figure 9.

Figures 11 to 16 are detail views illustrating different steps in the operation of the machine.

Figure 17 is a detail view of a die block and die shown in section in Figure 16.

Figure 18 is a plan view of a completed bag made by the machine.

Figures 19, 20 and 21 represent sections on lines 19-19, 20-20 and 21--21 respectively of Figure 18, Figures 20 and 21 being on enlarged scales.

Similar reference characters indicate similar parts or features in all of the views.

Referring first to Figures 1, 2 and 3, so much of the frame of the machine as is necessary to illustrate includes side members 22. Suitably supported by said frame are lower and upper guide strips or plates 23, 24, the upper one of which may be omitted.

The articles to be treated by the mechanism illustrated and presently described, comprise longitudinally folded sections of paper theledges of which are overlapped and adhesively secured to form a longitudinal seam, each such article then consisting of a tubular section folded fiat and 30 open at both ends. Such an article is illustrated in Figures 18 to 20, except that said figures also illustrate one end' as folded and having a string and tab near the other end. The folding of an end, and the application of a string and tab, are 35 effected by the present machine. Therefore, it is to be understood that each article supplied to and operated on by the present machine claimed herein, consists simply of a flat paper tube a hav-' ing a longitudinal glued seam b. As such articles might be supplied manually to the guide 23, although in practice such fiat tubes are printed and supplied by other parts of a complete machine, it has not been considered necessary to illustrate herein such other parts, since such other parts fold a web of paper, provide the glued seam b (Fig. 18) and cut the folded and longitudinally seamed web into fiat folded sections of the desired lengths, and feed such sections onto the guide strip 23 for the operations of folding and adhesively securing one end of each flat section and then applying a string and tab near the other end of each section. It is the mechanism for performing the last-mentioned operations which constitute the special features of the pres ent invention and which will now be described.

To aid in forwarding each fiat section over the table strips 23, suitable means are employed, such as a roll or rolls 25 carried by a shaft 26 mounted in frame brackets 2'7, said shaft having a and 11).

sprocket 28 at one end (Fig. 2) connected by a chain with another sprocket 29 carried by one end of a shaft 30. At the other end of the shaft 30 is a bevel gear 31 meshing with a bevel gear 32 carried by the main shaft 33 of the machine.

The shaft 30 carries a drum 34 the periphery of which is preferably either partially or wholly covered with rough metal material to avoid marring inked surfaces of the paper sections when such sections are printed on their way to the mechanism illustrated. Figure 2 illustrates such rough metal in the form of bands 35.

The periphery of the drum 34 has a longitudinal recess 36 (Figs. 3, 11 and 12) mounted in the drum below said recess is a rocking rod 37 having a strip or blade 38 extending outwardly into said recess, the edge of the strip having a reinforced margin 39. One end of the rod 3'7 projects from one end of the drum and has an arm 40 (Figs. 2, 3 and 4) provided with a roll 41 which rides along the periphery of a fixed cam disk 42. A spring 43 connects the arm 40 with a sleeve portion of the drum.

To coact with the drum blade in folding one end of each paper section so as to provide a closed bottom for each bag, as illustrated at c and a. in Figures 18 and 21, the following mechanism is provided.

Above the shaft 30 is a shaft 44 mounted in bearings in the side wall portions of the frame and having at one .end (Fig. 2) a gear 47 meshing with a gear 48 of the shaft 30. The shaft 44 has two radial arms 49 connected by a bar 50 having a recess containing a pad strip 51 (Figs. 2, 3, 8 Mounted in said arms 49 is a rock shaft or rod 52 having lugs 53 which carry a blade 54,

and said rod also has an arm 55 at one end (Fig.'

11) with a spring 56 interposed between it and the bar 50, and at its other end (Figs. 2 and 5) has an arm 57 which rides over a fixed cam 58 supported by a frame bracket 59.

The blade 54 coacts with the recess 36 in the drum and the rocking strip 38, in effecting an end folding of each bag section, as hereinafter described, but before such folding is completed, a transverse stripe of adhesive is applied by the pad strip 51 to the surface of the bag section near the end that is then immediately folded over onto such stripe. For this purpose, a glue tank 60 (Fig. 3) is suitably mounted in the frame of the machine. A roll 61 dipping in glue in said tank transfers a film of glue to another roll 62 which is so located that upon each rotation of the shaft 40 and its arms 49, the pad strip 51 contacts with the roll 62 and takes glue therefrom and then applies a stripe of glue to the paper bag section in the proper location for the portion 12 of said bag section (Figs. 11 and 12) to be folded onto it.

When the blade 54 enters to the position shown in Figure 11, the bag section a is creased down and then, as said blade rises, the rod 37 rocks and its strip 38, 39, closes on the creased line so as to flex the portion d up (Fig. 12). Then, as the rotary motion of the drum 34 and the arms 49 continues, the upwardly flexed end (1 of the bag section reaches the roll 63 and is thereby laid back onto the area of the paper to which the glue stripe described has been applied. The thusfolded forward end of the bag section passes to the nip of the roll 63 which coacts with the drum 34 not only in ensuring proper pressure on the glue-carrying folded end of the bag section to effect a permanent bottom closure for the bag, but also ensures the drawing of it along for the next ensuing operations of applying a string and tab to it near its other end as illustrated in Figure 18. I

The mechanism for supplying the string from a reel and cutting it into sections will be next described.

Mounted on a bracket 64 at one side of the machine is a suitable reel for the string 1 (Figs. 1, 2. 9 and 10). From said reel-the thread passes through a guide 65 and a suitable tension device 66 to mechanism which draws the string straight across the successively passing paper bag sections and severs the string into sections of proper lengths and lays each section of string in position to have its mid-length connected to a bag section by an adhesively applied tab.

Mounted in uprights 67 at the top of the frame is a shaft 68 (Figs-2 and 6). Rotatively mounted on said shaft and secured together, are a disk 69 having a grooved periphery, a sprocket '70, and a ratchet '71. Secured to said shaft are a pinion '72 and an arm '73 having a pawl '74 which engages the ratchet '71. The pinion 72 is engaged by a toothed rod or rack 75 the upper end of which is slidably guided in a bracket member 76 the hub of which is mounted on the shaft 68 and the lower end of said rack being connected to a ring '77 surrounding an eccentric 78 carried by the shaft 33.

An endless chain 79 is mounted at one end on the sprocket '70 and at the other end (Fig. 2) on a sprocket 80 supported by a slide mounted in a bearing 81 and adjustable by a screw 82 to enable the chain to be kept properly taut.

At suitably-spaced intervals the chain 79 is provided with pairs of string nippers 83 which travel in line with the peripheral groove of the disk 69 (Figs. 9 and 10), the nippers of each pair being slightly spaced apart. A detached portion of Figure 13 illustrates one of the nip- 5 pers 83 and shows the string 1 as nipped between the head of a spring-actuated spindle mounted in a small bracket depending from the chain 79, and the side of the bracket, the nipping action being such as to enable the string to be temporarily held, and to be supplied to proper position as presently described.

To momentarily open the nippers so as to enable the string to be taken thereby, a cam (Figs. 3 and 10) is located in position so that 12.5 when the rear or outer ends of the spindles pass said cam the heads of the spindles will be temporarily moved away from the brackets of the chain 79, in which brackets the spindles are mounted as just described.

The severing of the string into sections is effected by a knife blade 84, through connections the operation of which will now be described, after explaining the actuation of the nipper chain to properly position the nippers.

Each time that the eccentric 78 draws the rack rod 75 down, the pawl 74 and the ratchet 71 cause the sprocket '70 to effect the travel of the chain 79 a distance to shift a pair of nippers 83 from a position close to the sprocket '70 (Fig. 9) past the position illustrated in Figure 2 and over to a position close to the idly-mounted sprocket 80. The nipper-carrying chain then remains stationary during the return or upward movement of the rack rod. As soon as the chain stops moving, the length of string j that was drawn across from side to side of the machine is severed but remains temporarily held by two nippers one of which is the rear-most nipper of one pair and the fore-most nipper of the next following pair. 150

Then the rotary knife blade 84 acts, and the length of the severed string section f is substantially that illustrated in Figures 18 and 19.

The knife blade (Figs. 2, 3, 4 and 9) is carried by an arm 85 of a shaft 86 mounted in the frame and having a sprocket 87 connected by a chain 88 (Figs. 1 and 2) with a sprocket 89 carried by the shaft 30, whereby the knife completes one operative rotation for each rotation of the drum 34. The direction of rotation of the knife is indicated by the arrows adjacent thereto in Figures 3 and 4. It is to be understood that the path of rotation of the knife and the timing of its rotations are such as not to interfere with the path and timing of other rotative members presently described.

After the string has been cut at the point illustrated by Figure 9, the two ends of its severed section are held temporarily in stationary position and in fairly taut condition. This because the chain 79 is not moving during upward movement of the rack '75. But just before the chain starts to move again and draw more string from the supply reel, the severed section is removed from the holding nippers 83 by mechanism which will now be described.

Surrounding that portion of the shaft 44 between its two arms 49 is a sleeve or outer shaft 90 (Figs. 2, 3 and '7) having end arms 91 and an intermediate arm 92. Extending through all three arms and rockably mountedtherein is a shaft 93 having bent fingers 94 (Figs. 4, 5, '7 and 13) to coact with portions 95 of the two arms 92 in gripping the cut section of string, near its ends, when said section is located under the fingers as presently described.

At this point it is desirable to explain that the folding of one end of each bag section as has been described, is effected while the rotating shafts and their arms are approaching and just passing the position illustrated in Figure 3, and that therefore said folded end moves under the pressingroll 63, and the bag article is drawn along, sothat although the arms 91, 92, seem to be closely in advance of the arms 49 and might therefore be understood as acting first on a bag section, the parts carried by said arms 91, 92, perform their functions only on a portion of each bag section near its open or rear end e (Fig. 18), acting .when the arms 91, 92, have rotated far enough to approach and pass the position illustrated in Figure 16.

Just as the string has been severed as has been described, by the knife 84, the arms 91 are about in the position shown by full lines in Figure 13 and moving toward the dotted'line position of said figure, and the fingers 94 are opened so as to pass over or behind the string section which is then being held by the nippers 83 of the chain '79. Such opening of the fingers is effected by an arm 96 of the shaft 93 (Figs. 5 and 7) riding under a roll 97 (Figs. 5 and 2), said roll being carried by an arm having a slot through which a bolt passes to secure it to the frame in properly adjusted position. Said roll 97 acts on the arm 96 so as to rock the shaft 93 to raise the fingers 94 from the lugs 95. While so raised, the fingers enter behind the string section and then, as the arms 91 pass to the dotted line position of Figure 13, the fingers are closed down on the string ,1 by the action of a spring 98 (Fig. '7) connecting another arm 99 of the shaft 93 with one of the arms 91. Further rotary movement of the arms 91 brings them and the gripping fingers 94 to a position where said fingers are again opened to release the string so that it and the tab g presently described can be assembled and applied to the bag. Such second opening of the gripping fingers is effected by the arm 96 of the shaft 93 contacting with and riding over a cam strip 97'. (Fig. 5) fixed to a cross bar of the machine. When said second opening occurs, the string section is delivered or freed in a position adjacent to and across the traveling bag section near its open end. and it and a tab section are attached to the bag as presently described. First, however, it should be explained that before the string f is gripped by the fingers 94, and before the arm 92 reaches position opposite the glue roll 62, the tab-applying mechanism which will now be described, is operated.

Referred to Figures 1 and 3, a strip g of strong material. such as kraft paper, is supplied from a coil mounted on a suitably supported reel 100, and passes through a curved guide 101 the outlet end of which is close to a roll 102 carrying a stripcreasing blade 103 and a strip-cutting blade 104 (Figs. 3 and 14). The roll 102 is carried by a shaft 105 which is actuated through suitable gearing not necessary to illustrate in detail, in such timed relationship to the shaft which carries the cooperating parts presently described, as to ensure correct locations on the bags of tabs cut from the strip and applied to the bag across the mid-length of the string as illustrated in Figure 18. The cooperating parts just referred to include the following members.

A rock shaft 106 (Fig. 7) is mounted in the center arm 92 and one of the end arms 91 of the sleeve shaft 90, and has an arm 10'! at its outer end, said arm having a spring 108 connecting it with a pin 109 projecting from the arm 91. A disk 110 (Fig. 4) having a recess 111, has slots 112 through which bolts 113 pas; into a fixed part of the machine to enable said disk to be rotatively adjusted to accurately position it so that each time the arm 107 passes the recess 111, the spring 108 will slightly rock the shaft 106 and effect results presently described.

The inner end of the rock shaft 106 has a blade 114 (Figs. 3, '7, 14, 1-5, 16) projecting out through a recess 115 in the face of the arm 92, the rest of the face of said arm being curved to provide a pressing surface 116.

In the operation of the parts just described, assuming that the roll 102 and the arm 92 are rotating in the direction of the arrows adjacent thereto in Figure 3, the blade 114 is then swung away from the opposite wall of the recess 115, because the arm 10'? is then passing the recess 111 in the disk 110 (Fig. 4). mains in position to expose the recess 115 long enough while the blade 103 of the roll 102 acts on the portion of the strip which is protruding from the end of the guide 101 and creases it into the recess 115. Then the blade 114 closes onto the creased portion of the strip with a suflicient gripping action (Figs. 14 and 15) to pull the strip along through the curved guide 101 until the cutting blade 104 coacts with a portion 117 of the curved surface 116 in severing the proper length of the strip, leaving the main length of the strip protruding from the guide 101 as shown in Figure 3, ready for the next operation. The ensuing rotation of the arm 92 carries the severed piece of strip g along past the glue-applying roll 62 which first lays back the forward end of the severed piece and then coats the outer surface of the whole with glue. As rotation continues, the string-gripping fingers 94 take the Said blade 114 repiece of string from the temporarily stationary nippers 83 as previously described, the middle portion of the string overlying the glued surface of the tab section 9, and both the string and the tab section are then carried around and onto the bag a, the string being then under the tab, and both are pressed into the bag by the curved surface 116 of the arm 92, in about the position shown near the right of Figure 18. Additional pressure is imparted along the seam b of the bag, and to the applied tab g, by the roll 63 (Fig. 3), and each bag with its attached string and tab are then delivered over a rack 118 and between rolls 119, to any suitable table or stacker.

Description of an additional operation of the machine has been omitted so far, to avoid confusion, and will now be explained.

Mounted in a peripheral portion ofthe drum 34 (Figs. 3, 16 and 17) is a block 120 having a sharp edged die 121 which is preferably of a shape somewhat more than half a circle. Said die is in such position that when the parts are in and passing the position shown in Figure 16, the die 121 cuts into and through the bag and its tab 9, forming a curved slit h therein (Fig. 18). The result is that the material partly surrounded by the curved slit can be deflected to provide a hole for a purpose presently described. To illustrate this, Figure 20 shows said material as deflected; but when the bag is made and riqdy for use, there isno such deflection; that is, the portions of paper within the curved slit rem. -n flat and therefore, if the bag is to be used to contain goods to which moths must not gain access, the slit effected by the die 121 has no function. The main object of making the curved slit h so that a hole is provided for, will be explained presently.

Referring to Figures 18 and 20, it will be seen that the edges of the bag at the open end e are not flush. In other words, the hack member or layer of the bag which includes the lap seam b and the folds c d, and which has the string f and tab g attached thereto, projects at the open end e beyond the end edge of the other or front layer which is smooth and which, in practice, usually bears printed matter. This inequality of the edges of the two layers at the open end of the bag coacts with the reinforced hole h in the following respect:

When the bag is hung on a hook entering the hole It in the reinforced portion of the bag, such hook, unless the bag is very carelessly applied to the hook, passes only through the hole in the rear wall of the bag. In fact such hole need not exist in the front wall except for the fact that in the operation of the machine as illustrated and described, the cutting die 121 passes through the layer which is to be the front wall of the bag in order to reach and act on the other or back layer and the tab 9. Therefore, when the bag is hung on a hook, the usual upturned end of such hook terminates inside the bag above the hole in the front wall, and tends somewhat to spread or open the bag. Whether such tendency to spread the top of the bag opens its upper end or not, articles can be very easily deposited in the bag because the inequality of its upper edges as h'e'reinbefore described, and illustrated at e in Figures 18 and 20, enables the users fingers to so separate the top edges as to open the bag for the insertion of articles. Of course the string f is hanging loosely, but is always present to be used to tie around the upper portion of the bag when it and its contents are to be removed or transported. Any suitable means may be employed for so transversely cutting a web of paper into sections, before folding them to flat tubular form, as to provide for the above-described inequality of the edges at the open end e, and therefore it is not necessary to illustrate such web-cutting means herein.

As the operations of the different parts of the machine have been explained in connection with the descriptions of the structures thereof, a description of the operation of the machine as a whole is unnecessary. It is desirable however to mention that means are provided for varying the distance of the string-gripping and other devices which are carried by the arms 91, 92, of the tubular shaft 90 (Figs. 3 and '7) from the folding blade 54 and other devices which are carried by the arms 49 of the shaft 44 (Figs. 3 and 8) which latter shaft is within the said tubular shaft 90, in order to properly vary the distance of the string and tab near one end of the bag from the other folded bottom end of the bag when the machine is to be used for making bags of different lengths. As shown in Figure 7, one of the arms 91 of the shaft 90 has an arc slot 122, and one of the arms 49 of the shaft 44 (Fig. 8) has a threaded hole 123. A screw or bolt 124 (Fig. 2) passes through the slot 122 into said threaded hole 123 to maintain the parts in the desired relative rotary positions. By loosening the bolt 124, rotatively adjusting the tubular shaft on the driven shaft 44, and re-setting the bolt, the distance of application of the strings and tabs from the fold ed bottoms of the bags can be varied.

It is to be understood that by the term string employed herein, I do not mean to be limited to strand material which is round in cross section, as the strand material may be flat, like tape. I do not claim herein the articles produced by the present machine, one of which articles is illustrated in Figures 18 to 21, as the same form the subject matter of my divisional application filed November 15, 1932, Serial No. 642,809.

Having now described my invention, Iclaimz- 1. A bag-making machine having means for laying a section of string across each bag, and means for adhesively securing a tab to each bag in a position overlying the string at a point intermediate the ends thereof.

2. A bag-making machine having means for causing a fiat-folded tubular bag section to travel, and means for closing one end of said section and applying a string near the other end thereof while the section is traveling.

3. A bag-making machine having means for causing a flat-folded bag section to travel, and means for closing one end of said section and applying a string and a tab near the other end thereof while said section is traveling.

4. A bag-making machine having means for causing flat-folded bag sections to travel, a chain mounted to travel across the path of travel of the bag sections, means carried by said chain for drawing string across each bag section, means for cutting said string into sections, and means for transferring each string section to a bag and affixing it thereto.

5. A bag-making machine having means for causing flat-folded bag sections to travel, a chain mounted to travel across the path of travel of the bag sections, pairs of string nippers carried by said chain, a rotary knife movable in a path to cut the string between the pairs of nippers, and means for transferring each string section to a bag and affixing it thereto.

6. A bag-making machine having means for causing flat-folded bag sections to travel, an intermittently movable chain having pairs of string nippers for drawing string across each bag section, a rotary knife movable in a path to pass between the pairs of nippers while the chain is stationary, and means for transferring cut string sections to the bag sections and afiixing them thereto.

7. A bag-making machine having means for causing fiat-folded bag sections to travel, a chain mounted to travel across the path of travel of the bag sections, means carried by said chain for drawing string across each bag section, means for cutting said string into sections, rotary grippers for removing each string section from the chain and carrying it into proximity with a bag section, and means for aflixing said string section to the bag section.

8. A bag-making machine having means for causing fiat-folded bag sections to travel, a chain mounted to travel across the path of travel of the bag sections, means carried by said chain for drawing string across each bag section, means for cutting said string into sections, rotary grippers for removing each string section from the chain and carrying it into proximity with a bag section, and means for adhesively applying a tab to each bag section across its string section.

9. A bag-making machine having means for causing fiat-folded bag sections to travel, means for depositing a string section on each bag section, means for feeding a strip of tab material and cutting it into sections, means for applying adhesive to each section cut from said strip, and means for pressing each adhesive-carrying strip section onto a bag section across said string.

10. A bag-making machine having a rotary drum provided with a small cutting die, means for applying tab sections to bag sections, and means for pressing each bag section and its applied tab section on said cutting die to effect an aperture in the tab and a wall of the bag.

11. A bag-making machine having a rotary drum provided with a small cutting die, means for applying folded adhesively-coated tabs to bag sections, and means for pressing each bag section and its applied tab on the drum and its cutting die, whereby slits are formed in the tabs and wall portions of the bags.

12. A bag-making machine having means for causing bag-sections to travel, means for laying a straight length of strand material across each section near one end thereof, and means for adhesively afiixing a tab to each section across the strand material.

13. A bag-making machine having means for causing bag-sections to travel, means for laying a straight length of strand material across each section near one end thereof, means for adhesively affixing a tab to each section across the strand material, and means for forming slits in the tabs.

14. A bag-making machine having means for causing bag-sections to travel, means for laying a straight length of strand material across each section near one end thereof, means for adhesively afiixing a tab to each section across the strand material, and means for forming a hole in each bag-section and tab.

MELVIN H. SIDEBOTHAM. 

